Mystery Girl
by NobodyInParticular01
Summary: First there was the Impossible Girl. Now there is the Mystery Girl too. When the Doctor and Clara encounter a girl with no memory, they are determined to find out who she is. Their search takes them back to scenes and acquaintances from the past, as they revisit places and people they never thought they'd see again. And all the while, the Silence are gathering...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The Tardis whirred and shuddered as it landed. The Doctor flicked a few levers on the console and whirled around, heading towards the doors of the blue police box, Clara following him.

"Welcome, to the planet of Hubris, in the year 2435, at the peak of its power,"

Clara frowned, "Doesn't hubris mean pride or something?"

The Doctor grinned, "Theoretically, it is Ancient Greek for deadly pride or arrogance, but the human settlers here weren't to know that. They were ordinary space travellers, with very little formal education, the space equivalent of the pioneers on the wagon trains in North America. The person who first found this planet and colonised it had probably heard the word somewhere and thought he'd been very clever in naming it something fancy,"

Clara laughed and then followed the Doctor out of the door, grinning. Her grin faded, however, when the Doctor stopped a few paces later. She tried to peer around him to see what was wrong, but couldn't see anything except grey sky and a dingy alleyway. A bitter wind was whipping her hair around her face and she instinctively hugged herself to keep herself warm.

"Oh, this is not good. Not good at all,"

He whirled around, lunging for the Tardis, but it was already whirring and vworping into space. The Doctor grabbed his hair, before tensing.

"That shouldn't happen!" he cried, "That shouldn't happen!"

"Okay," Clara said, "Where are we and where is the Tardis?"

The Doctor looked at her, "I don't know! It's just disappeared! And this is not Hubris,"

"I gathered that," Clara replied, "So where are we?"

"I don't know," he muttered. Clara looked around, taking in her surroundings. They were in a narrow, dingy alleyway, flanked on either side by tall stone buildings. The sky above was grey and clouded, and factories pumped gas and smog into the horizon.

Everywhere around them, hunched-shouldered people dressed in drab greys and browns shuffled along the alleyway, eyes flicking around fearfully. Men and women in smart dark blue uniforms embossed with silver patrolled the streets, slapping batons crackling with electricity against their gloved hands.

The Doctor looked around, still searching for the Tardis. Clara looked at him.

"Doctor, we need to find the Tardis. Where should we look first?" he could tell that she was trying to be pragmatic, and not panic. It helped to bring him to his senses.

"Yes. Well, we should just look, I suppose,"

They headed up the alley, peering around every corner for the familiar sight of the big blue box, but there was no sign of it. They tried asking someone for help, but all queries were met with a frightened glance at the people in uniform and a quick shake of the head.

The Doctor frowned, taking out his screwdriver and waving it around.

"Something's not right. This says this is Earth, in 9786, but it shouldn't be like this. There are too many people, and it's too developed. By this time most of the people should have left and gone into space. The only one's remaining should be living in the rainforests in the Amazon or something,"

"Or something?" Clara asked sceptically. The Doctor shrugged.

"Well, anywhere that wasn't a stinking cesspit of smoke,"

"Great. So we're in the future, when Earth is meant to be a polluted wasteland except for-"

She was cut off as something hurtled by them, spinning both Clara and the Doctor around. A girl was hurrying down the street, running as fast as she could, long dark hair flying out behind her. She cast frightened glances behind her at her pursuers, a crowd of the uniformed men and women.

The girl was fast, faster than them by far, but she seemed to be tiring dramatically. The Doctor immediately assessed her to be suffering from hunger and cold; she was only dressed in a thin pale blue t-shirt and grey trousers, with no shoes, and in this cold she would have been freezing. Her shoulder-blades were poking out from underneath her shirt and there seemed to be barely a spare ounce of fat on her.

Suddenly, the girl tripped on something, and the police, for that was what they seemed to be were on her. One raised his baton and jabbed her in the ribs. She arched her back and cried out, electricity crackling through her body. Another flicked a switch on her baton and clubbed the girl around the head.

Clara looked at the Doctor, before running over to the scene. None of the other passers-by seemed to be doing anything, just hurrying quickly passed the huddle of dark adults. As the two outsiders drew closer, they could see the girl struggling as her captors tried to cuff her wrists. She kicked out at one of them, before ripping her arms free and spinning in a slow circle, arms raised in a defensive stance. The law enforcers had formed a ring around her, all of them leering.

There was a look of panic on the girl's face, blood trickling from a cut one of their spiked gloves had left on her face. It also had a sense of confusion, as though the panic was the instinctive, animalistic reaction to the situation at hand, and that she didn't really know where she was.

"Thought you'd run away, did you?" a policewoman asked, slapping her baton against her palm. The girl didn't answer, silvery-blue eyes flicking around nervously, not looking any of them in the eye.

Clara and the Doctor reached the circle, and the Doctor tapped one of the adults on the shoulder.

"Yes?" he asked, looking the Doctor up and down curiously and disdainfully.

"Um, well, I was just wondering why you were apprehending this girl," the Doctor replied. The girl in question took the moment as an opportunity to try and run for it, but the man talking to the Doctor grabbed her by her hair, grinning as she cried out in pain, and snapping handcuffs around her wrists.

"Well sir, what is your name?" the policeman asked again in a rather bland, nasally voice that brought Clara to within a sentence of slapping him just to shut him up.

"Professor...uh, Smith, from the, uh, Academy," the Doctor managed, grasping for something that sounded official, and pulling the psychic paper from his pocket, "And this is Clara, my...assistant,"

The man looked at the psychic paper, but frowned, "Well sir, if you are from the Academy, then you should know why we are 'apprehending' this girl,"

"I'm...um...from a different branch?" the Doctor offered, sensing that this conversation was being pulled very, very far from his control. The man nodded.

"I see. Well then, you'll have no objection to me accompanying you back there, just to make sure. Wouldn't want someone lying about being from the Academy, would we?"

"Uh...no, we wouldn't," the Doctor muttered, casting around for something to get them out of there. Clara, on the other hand, had a better idea, pointing somewhere behind the man, and yelling:

"Look! Behind you!" before grabbing the girl and the Doctor and running as fast as she could back the way they came. The law enforcers didn't seem to be the brightest bunch, and it took them a while to realise that the three were sprinting down the alleyway.

"Doctor!" Clara yelled, "Sonic! Handcuffs! Now!"

He tugged the screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it the girl's wrists as they ran. There was a click and the handcuffs fell off. She sped up, reaching Clara, who before then had been dragging her. Then she took the lead, running as fast as she could and turning a sharp corner into an alleyway, then rounding another corner, pulling the Doctor and Clara into an alcove.

They heard the police run into the previous street, then an order to spread out. The girl tugged on Clara's sleeve, before running to a ladder, swarming up the wall. Clara and the Doctor followed quickly, before crowding onto a narrow window ledge. The girl didn't stop, wordlessly jumping and grabbing hold of the windowsill above them and pulling herself up. The Doctor and Clara looked at each other, before following her lead and laboriously hauling themselves up.

They heard a shout and saw one of the police officers pulling a gun from a holster. A shot fired and then there was a scream. The girl was hanging by her fingertips from a ledge, blood pouring from her other arm. She let out a pained grunt and then pulled herself up onto the roof.

By the time the Doctor and Clara reached the roof she was lying on the roof, clutching her arm. Her face was deathly pale. The Doctor looked at her arm, before tearing a strip from the sleeve of her shirt and tying a makeshift bandage. They looked around.

Officers were trying to scale the building, but they were going about it very slowly, ledge by ledge. The Doctor looked at Clara worriedly, before smiling brightly.

"I just realised something!" he cried, taking out his screwdriver, "Using the sonic, I should be able to..."

He paused, waving the sonic around in the air. There was a familiar whirring and the Tardis came into view.

"Call the Tardis," he finished, smiling as though he was a schoolboy who had completed a particularly difficult assignment in double quick time. Clara sighed, before picking up the girl, who weighed next to nothing.

"Doctor," she muttered, "Sometimes I could kill you,"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Inside the Tardis, the Doctor and Clara looked at the girl passed out on the hospital bed in front of them. She was very pale, and looked to be about 13 or 14. Her hair was long, thick and dark brown, and she had a thin, vaguely pretty, heart-shaped face. She was tall, and had an athletic, boyish build, with strong shoulders and legs, despite being painfully skinny.

Once they had piloted out of Earth, the Doctor had treated her for her bullet wound, as well as the various cuts and bruises she had received at the hands of the police officers, exhaustion, cold and hunger and she now seemed to sleeping peacefully.

"Who is she?" Clara asked the Doctor as he played with the sonic screwdriver.

"I don't know," he replied, "She...she has Time Lord DNA,"

Clara looked at him, "Then...that means that you might not be the last,"

The Doctor shrugged, "It could mean anything. It could be a trick, a trap,"

Clara fell silent, before turning around as a sound came from the bed. The girl was waking up, sitting up and then looking around nervously. She backed up the bed as Clara approached her.

"It's okay," Clara murmured, "I won't hurt you. What's your name?"

The girl tilted her head, "I don't know,"

She sounded confused, like she didn't know where she was, like even speaking was a challenge.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked fiercely.

"I don't know," she repeated fearfully, hugging her knees.

"Doctor, don't frighten her, can't you see she's scared?" Clara admonished quietly.

"It's probably an act. Don't trust her," he replied, but he was frowning.

Clara turned back to the girl, "I'm Clara," she said.

"You're Clara," the girl replied.

"Do you know why you were running?" Clara pressed, looking at the Doctor for help.

"I don't know. I woke up, and I had to run," the girl replied.

"Do you remember anything from before you woke up?" the Doctor butted in. He wasn't sounding so accusing, but the girl still looked scared.

"No," she shook her head, "I woke up and I had to run,"

The Doctor frowned, before pulling Clara away and into a different room.

"I've seen something like this before," he muttered, "I had a friend, who found this boy, who had been created by a race of aliens for domination...this girl is like that, except she's different. Then, they had created a human, theoretically in their control, but he woke up too early, and they had no control over him. It's like this girl is the same, except they created a Time Lady,"

Clara frowned, "But what does that mean? She looks like she's 13,"

"Yes, it's like they've taken a baby's brain, given it adult knowledge and put it in a girl's body. She should know everything, have theoretical knowledge of everything, but she has no experience of the world. It's like she's a baby who can talk and knows everything,"

He walked back to where the girl was sitting on the bed, "Hey," he murmured, "Can I ask you something?"

She nodded, looking up at him with big silver-blue eyes.

"What is the square root of pi?"

Clara looked confused, but the girl seemed pleased to be able to deal with solid fact.

"1.77245385091," she replied promptly.

The Doctor nodded at Clara, as they withdraw to the other room, "You see, she knows everything. But there's something else. I think she's bee...programmed, I guess. I mean her body. She's been given the memories and information to perform actions that she has no comprehension of. Did you see her stance earlier?"

Clara nodded.

"That wasn't some amateur rookie pose, that was a proper self-defence position. I think that this girl will know how to play every sport, and be able to do anything she needs to perfectly. It's not as if, say, I asked her to bowl at me and she would know what to do. This is just an example, but if she was given a cricket ball she would know what to do with it and could do it perfectly. Or...if she was put in a swimming pool, then she could swim in about five minutes. To put it simply, given the right stimulus, she will be able to learn what to do using the information in her head, and then her body will be able to copy it exactly,"

Clara looked at him, "I have no idea what you just said. But okay,"

The Doctor sighed, "Basically, if she is put in the right environment, then she will use the information already in her head to teach her body what to do,"

"I get it," Clara said, "So...basically she's perfect,"

"Yes. She's the perfect weapon; if her creators gave her a gun and told her to shoot someone, she wouldn't understand what it would do, and she would do it,"

Clara nodded, "What will we do with her? We have no idea where she came from, or really what she is, apart from guesswork,"

"I suppose she'll have to stay for now," the Doctor sighed.

They walked back into the room the girl was in, and Clara went over to her.

"Right," she said, "Do you know what a name is?"

"A name is a word or term used for identification. It may refer to a person or several persons, or-"

"Okay," Clara interrupted, smiling, "That's enough. But you're going to need one. So...what name would you like?"

"I don't know," the girl replied, "I know of every name in existence. That is quite a hard choice to make,"

"Okay, I'll give you a name. How about...Alice. You can be Alice,"

"I like that name," Alice grinned, "Where am I?"

"This is the Tardis," the Doctor explained, looking pleased to talk about it, "It's a-"

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space," Alice cut him off, "A space-time machine,"

She looked around her in amazement. Clara frowned.

"Doctor," she whispered, "She seems to be able to talk better now,"

"I suppose she must have passed the mental barriers when she started talking. Like doing something for the first time; now she can do it perfectly,"

Clara nodded, before turning back to the girl, "Okay. What to do. What do you want to do, Alice?"

"I don't know," she replied, "What are you going to do?"

"Uh...I don't know either. Do you like reading?"

"What is like?" Alice asked, tilting her head.

"I thought you said she knew everything!" Clara whispered fiercely to the Doctor.

"Um...I thought that too. I guess they didn't give her everything, just the information they thought she'd need,"

Clara sighed, "This is going to be harder than I thought," she muttered.

**A/N: Hey, so, my first story on this website. It is so hard to get used to this thing! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, it's my first Doctor Who fanfiction. I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but I just got it to a natural ending so I stopped sooner than I should have done, I guess. I have an only a vague idea where this is going to go, it's still quite abstract so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks to anyone who follows/favourites/reviews!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Clara looked at Alice as she gazed in wonder at her surroundings. It was strange, seeing someone of that age with such a childlike view on everything. She was around Angie's age, and Clara wanted to talk to her like she did Angie, instead of having to explain everything.

Alice actually seemed much more mature than she had expected, but there were disconcerting gaps in her knowledge. She could talk perfectly, and seemed extraordinarily clever, but Clara would suddenly say something, and Alice would be confused. She also appeared to have a distinct personality already.

She was very particular, and seemed almost OCD. Clara had shown Alice her own room, and the Doctor had let her take some books from the library. Immediately, she had organised them alphabetically by author's last name.

Alice was weird. That was the only way to put it; she was weird. She had a slightly manic nature, with a tendency to jump on tables or twirl around if she discovered something knew.

It was when Alice was organising her books that Clara realised she had nothing else other than those books and the clothes she was wearing.

"Okay, we're going shopping," Clara told her, grabbing the younger girl's hand.

"What's shopping?" Alice asked innocently. She still had that look of wonderment on her face as she stared at everything.

"Um...it's going and buying things that you need. Like clothes, or food,"

Alice nodded happily and followed Clara into the main control room of the Tardis.

"Doctor!" Clara yelled, "Can you take me to New York?"

The man himself stuck his head around the corner of a wall, frowning.

"Why?" he asked.

"I'm going shopping with Alice," Clara replied. The Doctor sighed good-naturedly and started flicking switches on the control panel.

"You've left the handbrake on," Alice said as the familiar whirring began and the Tardis began to materialise on Oxford Street. The Doctor scowled.

"Maybe,"

"It's meant to materialise silently," Alice pressed earnestly.

"Okay,"

"Come on Alice," Clara dragged the girl out of the Tardis, sensing that it really wasn't the time to be talking about handbrakes.

She put on a pair of sunglasses and looked around her at the busy street, before heading towards one of the packed, brightly coloured stores.

She didn't see the man in black silently follow her across the road, muttering something into an earpiece.

Meanwhile, inside the Tardis, the Doctor was contemplating Alice, this mystery girl. Despite knowing everything, she didn't really know anything, he reflected.

It was impossible to blame her; she hadn't asked for any of this, hadn't asked to be brought into the world as a girl too young for her body and knowledge.

But the question was, who had? Who had created this girl, and for what purpose. And why had the Tardis arrived in an Earth that shouldn't have been there, instead of a planet in a different galaxy and different time?

He could only assume that it was to get at him. No matter how much he tried to convince himself that none of this was Alice's fault, a part of him still thought that she was just acting like that.

It wasn't true, but it was a niggling suspicion that he couldn't get rid of. Sighing, he turned around to the console of the Tardis, when something strange caught his eye.

"No, no, that shouldn't be happening. What? No-"

A red light flashed on the console and a neutral voice voice began speaking.

"Transmat beam detected,"

The Doctor desperately began flicking switches and levers, trying to find out where the transmit was coming from and get away, before something else occurred to him and all the colour drained from his face.

"No-Clara!"

She would think he had abandoned her! The perception filter didn't work on her, so when she came back to the corner where he had parked the Tardis, what would she think?

Clara dragged Alice away for yet another time, as the girl stopped suddenly in the middle of looking for clothes. She was gazing at a giant glitterball hanging from the ceiling, mesmerised by the way it sparkled in the glare of the sun.

This had happened regularly for the past half an hour, and Clara was beginning to think that taking Alice shopping wasn't such a good idea. It was getting excruciatingly annoying to have to stop what she was doing every so often.

"Clara!" Alice cried, "Look!"

"Yes, Alice, what is it?" Clara replied irritably, turning around. Alice was pointing at a large, heavyset man in a black suit, staring at them from a nearby stand of hats.

"He's been following us since we left the Tardis," Alice said matter-of-factly. Clara cursed under her breath, berating Alice for drawing his attention to them, and ploughed on past a row of t-shirts.

Grabbing a random dress from a rack and holding against in the pretence of seeing how it looked, Clara peered at a standing mirror, to see the man in black slowly following them through the crowd. She kept going, heading for the back exit in a hope to lose their pursuer.

Once out on the street, Clara walked briskly through the crowds, hand clamped around Alice's wrist in case she got distracted.

They reached the corner where the Tardis had last been, and Clara stopped dead.

"Where is it?" she cried, "Where's the Tardis? Where's the Doctor,"

"It's not here," Alice replied, "He must have left. He doesn't like me very much,"

She said it happily enough, but Clara detected a hint of sadness in her voice. She realised how much Alice must worship the Doctor; they were so similar, and Alice had a passion for learning that she would have thought would have intrigued him.

It was strange; he was perfectly tolerant of Angie and Artie whenever they visited, but seemed to have no patience for Alice. She supposed it was because of her Time Lord DNA...

Clara was brought back to the present when Alice screamed. Clara whirled around and saw her crouching on the ground, hands over her ears. The man in black was pressing a button on a device that was flashing red and pointing it at Alice. It was obviously causing her extreme pain.

Clara put her hands on Alice's shoulders, trying to get the crying girl to move, but she couldn't. Alice weighed very little, but Clara couldn't carry her, and she was dealing with several bags of merchandise.

The man approached them, and Clara tried to drag Alice further down the street. There was hundreds of people swarming past them, yet none of them seemed to see either Clara, Alice or the man, so there was no point in calling for help.

"Alice," Clara murmured, "Alice, you have to get up. I know it hurts, but you're going to have to run,"

Alice whimpered, but got up. Tears were pouring down her face, but she wobbled to her feet, unsteady. Clara then grabbed her hand and they ran, weaving through hordes of shoppers, the bags banging against Clara's leg.

She sighed angrily before dropping them. A couple of kids grabbed them excitedly, looking in amazement at Clara as she ran on.

The man seemed to run without running though, gliding down the street at twice the pace of Clara and Alice. He caught up with them, still seeming to go unnoticed by any of the passers-by. Whenever he was near, the two girls seemed invisible too.

The man reached a hand out for Alice, who shrank back. Clara pulled her behind her body, shielding her from the hand-held device that seemed to cause her so much pain.

"Relinquish possession of the girl," droned the man in a monotone, showing no expression.

"What do you want with her?" Clara asked bravely, though she was terrified.

"That is none of your concern," the man replied, "Relinquish the girl, or you will be apprehended also,"

Clara looked around, before sprinting off again, but then Alice collapsed behind her. Clara turned to see the girl lying on the ground and shuddering as electric charges coursed through her body, mouth open in a silent scream. A metal device was embedded in her ribs. Clara reached down to grab her, but the electricity spread to her too and she tried to scream, but couldn't.

She didn't know what was happening, the world was spinning, and she didn't know where she was. Why was there a girl lying on the ground next to her? Why was she so sleepy? Why did her arm feel like it was on fire?

The pain became too much for Clara to bear, and the last thing she felt before her vision went black was a pair of handcuffs being snapped around her wrists.

**A/N: Hey! I'm not sure whether to put a pairing in, if I did it would Whouffle...please tell me what you think!**

**Guest: I am going to continue this, for as long as I can. Or at least til it comes to end or something!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Alice groaned as she came to, looking around at her surroundings. It was the white place, the place she had to run from. She stood up, looking around wildly. The man with the bowtie who didn't like her, the one Clara called the Doctor, was slumped in the corner. They looked like they were asleep.

Alice had to run, but she couldn't. The room was very small, but it was different to the white place from last time. It smelled the same, the same metallic smell of fear, but that wasn't the metal table that she had woken up on, and it was smaller, and there wasn't a door like last time. There was nowhere for her to run.

She heard a murmuring and turned to see the Doctor opening his eyes. He jumped up when he saw where they were, before patting his pockets.

"No sonic," he muttered, before rounding on Alice, "You!" he cried, "This is all your fault!"

Alice shrank back. He seemed angry, but she shook her head.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You told them where we were, somehow, you're the one who brought us here,"

"No!" Alice shook her head, "I didn't do anything! I don't know where I am!"

The Doctor sighed, realising that she was scared, "Okay. How did you end up here?"

Alice looked at him fearfully, "I was with Clara. And we were in a place with lots of clothes. It was very busy. The man wearing the black clothes had been following us, and I told Clara and she got scared. And we tried to run, but he found us. He had something-it hurt. And then it stopped hurting, and we were running, but then we stopped. And there was the electricity and then it all went dark and know I'm here and it's the white place and I've got to run but I can't!"

She huddled up in the corner, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth. The Doctor sighed, before sitting down next to her.

"I don't know where we are either. But it will be all right. You'll see,"

She shook her head and kept rocking, back and forth, "But I need to run," she whimpered, "That's all I know, I need to run. This is a bad place and I need to run but I can't and Clara's not here and you don't like me, and-"

Alice let out a muffled sob, burying her head in her hands. The Doctor tentatively put an arm round her, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Hey," he murmured, "I do like you. It's just...when we first found you, the Tardis ran a scan on you when you were asleep, and it said that you were like me. You weren't human like Clara, but you were like me. And...and I thought I was the only one like me left, so I thought that maybe it was a trick, and that was why I wasn't very nice,"

Alice looked up at him with silvery eyes brimming with tears, "What's a trick?" she asked, sniffing.

The Doctor stifled a groan. Talking to Alice was hard. Suddenly, he heard a click, and the wall behind them melted away. Alice and the Doctor fell backwards, before stumbling to their feet.

A woman stood there, flanked by tall creatures in black. The Doctor gasped and grabbed Alice's army, turning it over to reveal five black tally marks.

"You," he whispered, glaring at the woman with such undisguised hatred the Alice thought she should fall over.

"Yes," Madame Kovarian smiled grimly, "Me. How are you Doctor?"

He said nothing, still glaring at her, the hand holding Alice's wrist falling limp to his sides.

"Oh, and I see you've brought the Experiment with you as well. How nice,"

"She's not an experiment, she's a person," he replied evenly, voice devoid of any emotion.

"No, she's Experiment A1, the first of her kind, and the beginning of a new race ready to do my bidding," Kovarian turned to Alice, "And so, A1, you have returned to us at last. You may have woken prematurely, but you are still ready,"

Alice frowned, tilting her head in that gesture that made her look a little like a bird, "But my name is Alice,"

Kovarian growled, "No, you have no name. You are A1, and you will do _my _bidding. Come here,"

"Why?" Alice asked, looking confused. Kovarian's face darkened, but the Doctor smiled.

"A1, come here!" she yelled.

"I'm not A1," Alice replied, "I'm Alice,"

The Doctor kept smiling, "You may have thought you had created someone to do your bidding, but Alice woke up too soon, and she doesn't have to do anyone's bidding,"

Kovarian's lips twisted into a sadistic smile, "Oh, it does. It will do my bidding,"

"She's not an it!" the Doctor cried. Kovarian merely continued smiling, before taking a device from her pocket and pointing at Alice. A red light started flashing, and Alice backed away, associating it with pain, shaking her head.

Then, she started screaming, a chilling scream of pure pain, as she threw her head back, arching her spine as waves of fiery pain coursed through her body. She had felt some pain before, last time, but this was pure agony, and all she could do was scream through the red mist of pain.

"Stop it!" the Doctor yelled, "Stop hurting her!"

Kovarian shook her head, and Alice's screams intensified, until she just curled up in a ball and started rocking to and fro, tears streaming down her cheeks. Then her screams stopped, and she uncurled herself, shivering.

"Now A1, I am going to ask you again, come over here, or you will feel even more pain than you just did,"

Alice glanced at the Doctor, before walking slowly towards Kovarian.

"Well done," she said, smiling cruelly, grasping Alice's shoulder, hard. The girl gasped as Kovarian's long nails dug into her shoulder, before the woman wheeled her around and walked out of the cell.

"Oh, and Doctor," she called over her shoulder, as Alice looked back fearfully, "How's Clara?"

Clara woke up with a splitting headache, and as she got unsteadily to her feet, she saw that she was in a plain white room, with no furniture and smooth white walls and floor. It was small, only about five metres squared. The Doctor and Alice were nowhere to be seen.

She sighed, panic threatening to overwhelm her, before leaning back against the wall, head in her hands.

"Doctor," she whispered, "Where are you?"

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short, but they will all be over 1,000 words, I promise!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Alice followed Madame Kovarian as she led her through the building, stopping outside what looked like just another wall. Alice wondered how she could remember where the door was, because the whole wall looked the same. Then it slid open, revealing a large white room in which stood a metal bed, with cuffs on it.

"Now A1, I would like you to lie on that bed," Kovarian smiled sweetly, her words dripping with venom. Alice's brow furrowed.

"But I don't want to," she said. Kovarian smiled.

"Just get on there, or I'll hurt you. You've been more trouble than is worth right now,"

Alice walked towards the bed, knees shaking, and got on it. Kovarian then snapped the cuffs shut around her wrists, arms and neck, securing her in place. Alice's heart thrummed against her ribs. In her short life she had never felt such terror. Every animal instinct in her was screaming for her to run, and she started thrashing against her bonds.

"Stop struggling," Kovarian growled, slapping her in the face. Alice cried out, but stopped resisting, lying deathly still instead.

"I don't suppose such a brat as you would know what I'm talking about, but you were created for a special purpose. You have the DNA of two species; Time Lord and Human. You have enhanced speed, strength, reflexes and agility, and superior senses. All of this was designed for one purpose. To kill the Doctor,"

The Doctor sat on the floor of his cell, listening to the one-sided conversation going on wherever Alice was. He didn't doubt Kovarian had amplified it to unsettle him, but much of it he wasn't surprised with.

He had known Kovarian was alive, and that she would want to kill him. He just hadn't known how. Now that he did...well, none of made sense. It wasn't logical. She may not have been wearing her eyepatch, but she was still Madame Kovarian, and the Madame Kovarian he knew would have a plan a lot more logical and a lot easier to execute.

Wasn't wearing her eyepatch...why wouldn't she be wearing it? There was a reason she did, he was sure of it. Something to do with tally marks. The Doctor looked at his arm, seeing several black marks there. What did they mean?

They meant something...but he couldn't remember what.

Then a more pressing matter came to him. Clara. She was here somewhere; from what Alice had told him, she had been taken along with her charge. But where was she? And why?

I was quite obvious why he was here. Clara had saved him, millions and millions of times, silence had been averted. But it could still fall, and presumably that was why Kovarian wanted him dead.

Clara...Clara would be here to get to him. The Doctor was certain of that. But he would have to make sure that he didn't let her get to him. He needed to stay strong. He would be no good to anyone if he wasn't. Not Alice, not Clara.

But his resolve crumbled when he heard the scream.

Clara backed up against the wall, trying not to scream again. Something was creeping along the floor towards her. The lights had gone out, so she could only hear the click-clack of pincers creeping towards her. It was probably a spider. Clara wasn't afraid of spiders, but being stuck in the dark with something that sounded very big was still a very daunting prospect.

She felt along the wall for something and screamed again as her hand brushed something large and slightly furry, shuffling further down the wall. Clara turned around and saw a pair of large red eyes staring at her out of the darkness. She tried to keep calm, knowing that panicking really wasn't the way to go about things, though it was rather hard not to panic when stuck in a room with an area of 25 metres along with a giant spider.

Alice bit her lip when she felt the pain. It felt like something was being drilled into her skull. She didn't know that, essentially, something was. It was all she could do not to cry out, and as the pain intensified, she let out a little yelp, which intensified into a scream, one that she tried her hardest to cut off. She couldn't though, and started writhing and thrashing as much as she could.

Kovarian smiled, "It hurts, doesn't it? But don't worry, it will be over soon. And then you can go back to your friends, whom I'm sure you will _never _hurt,"

Alice was too woozy to realise that she was being sarcastic, and had no experience of sarcasm anyway. She just let out a little yelp again as she felt a sharp pain in her head.

"I suppose you might want to know what I am doing," Kovarian continued, "Well, I am essentially implanting a chip in your brain. I'll leave what the chip does for later. We wouldn't want to reveal everything now, would we?"

Suddenly the pain in Alice's head stopped and she let out a gasp. Kovarian unstrapped her from the bed, then dragged her back down the corridor, back to the Doctor's cell, before throwing her in.

Alice lay on her back, gasping for air. The Doctor hurried over to her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, concerned.

"I think so," Alice replied. She tried to sit up, but then fell back down again as the world began spinning.

"Just take it easy," the Doctor muttered, helping her lean against the wall, before sitting back in almost total despair.

"I have your screwdriver," Alice murmured as she tried not to go to sleep. The Doctor's face lit up.

"How did you get it?" he exclaimed, whirling around and waving the slim device in the air.

"It was in her pocket. I took it when she wasn't watching and hid it," Alice said, as her head slumped forward. The Doctor looked at her. He didn't know what had happened when she was with Kovarian, but it sounded as though she had been operated upon without any anaesthetic. Some chip or something had been implanted in her brain. And she had been created to kill him.

The Doctor sighed as he played with the sonic. This didn't make any sense. It wasn't Kovarian's usual style, and since when did she have the skills to perform such a delicate procedure on Alice? And there was still the unexplained question of the transmit beam, of where the Tardis was, of where Clara was, and the Earth that shouldn't have been there, where they had first found Alice.

He sighed. There seemed to be no connection, and yet there must be. There must be something, right?

His train of thought was interrupted when Alice made a sound, like a muffled yelp. He looked around to see her clutching her head, her knuckles white.

"Alice, Alice," he muttered, "What's wrong?"

She just pulled at her head, as though trying to rip it off, whimpering and murmuring.

"Alice, calm down okay? What's wrong?"

"The voices!" she cried, "There are voices in my head, and I don't know what they're saying but it hurts!"

The Doctor cast around wildly for something to explain this new behaviour, but couldn't find anything. Alice just seemed to have started hearing voices in her head all of a sudden. Her head...

"The chip!" he cried, "The chip, she must be using it to-"

He pointed the screwdriver at Alice, and gradually she began to calm down, panting and gasping.

"It's all right," the Doctor murmured, "You're safe,"

Even as he said he felt bad. Alice wasn't safe. In fact, she was about as far from safe as it was possible to get.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Clara sat huddled in the corner of her cell, staring at the red eyes. She hadn't slept, but her eyes kept closing over, and her head kept drooping. The red eyes hadn't done anything, just sit in the dark and watch her, but the thought of going to sleep with them in the same small space as her was terrifying.

There were bruises down her arm from where she had kept pinching herself to keep herself awake. Clara didn't think she had been more tired in her life. Every minute she felt herself droop, fading away, but every time she did she had to pull herself out of the fall, wary of the red eyes.

They weren't doing anything, they were just there. They wouldn't hurt her, right? That was what she told herself as the darkness overcame her vision and her head lolled to the side.

Alice looked at the Doctor as he fiddled with the sonic.

"What are you doing?" she asked inquisitively. He looked at her.

"You tell me," he sighed. Alice cocked her head.

"Well, you're trying to open the door but it's not working. It's not deadlock sealed though, so that begs the question, why isn't it opening?"

"How do you know it's not deadlock sealed?" the Doctor asked her.

"Cos the mechanics are wrong," Alice replied matter-of-factly, as though it should be obvious. The Doctor scowled when he realised she was right, before slumping dejectedly against the wall.

"It's probably made so that the frequency of this particular sonic won't open it. Try changing the frequency,"

"But you can't change the frequency. Otherwise the point of that door would be, well, pointless,"

Alice sighed and grabbed the screwdriver from the Doctor. She twiddled it, pointing it at the door they thought was the wall. It slid open silently, and the Doctor stared at her in amazement, dumbfounded.

"How-"

"Easy," Alice grinned, throwing him the screwdriver, "Now come on,"

She walked forward, but then stopped, leaning against the doorway as a spike of pain shot through her head. She sucked in a breath, holding her head, before standing up again.

"I'm fine," she said in reply to the Doctor's look of concern, before peering out of the doorway. The Doctor looked at her shrewdly before leading the way down the corridor.

"Okay," he whispered, "We need to find Clara. That's our primary objective,"

"Well, we could hear in there," Alice began, "So she's probably close by; it would be pointless to build an audio system all over wherever we are, so she should be somewhere along this corridor. We just need to find where; they all look like wall,"

The Doctor took out the sonic, pointing it methodically at the walls as they walked. Suddenly an area about five metres in length drew back, revealing Clara slumped against a wall, fast asleep.

The Doctor ran to her, shaking her awake. Her eyes flew open, but she relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Doctor," she whispered, "It's you,"

"Yes," he replied, "Now come on, we need to go,"

She got to her feet, before looking around at her surroundings.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, "But it has something to do with Alice. Basically, someone who I knew and who hates me created Alice to kill me, but she woke up too early and isn't under control. And now she has a chip in her head and we don't know what it does,"

"Okay," Clara said, "Way to tell me in a way I understand,"

The Doctor sighed, before closing the door and looking around.

"So, now we've found you, we need to find the Tardis and get out of here,"

"That's going to be rather tricky, isn't it Doctor?"

He whirled around and saw Madame Kovarian, holding Alice by the shoulders.

"Now, you've been very disobedient, haven't you, A1? You stole the sonic screwdriver from me and you used it to get out of the cell,"

"Let Alice go," Clara said.

"Oh, you found Clara. Well done, full marks for you," Kovarian smiled, before continuing, "You know, I quite like the name Alice. It's just such a pity that you were the one who gave it to my little experiment,"

"I know that you want to kill me," the Doctor began, "But why use Alice? Why not just do it yourself,"

"Well, for several reasons," Kovarian said sweetly, "Firstly, Time Lords are horribly hard to kill, seeing as you have that pesky habit of regenerating. And secondly, killing you in itself is a big ask,"

"Yes, but why go to such lengths to create Alice?" the Doctor persisted.

"Oh, poor Doctor," Kovarian said, "You still don't get it, do you? Alice is half Time Lord. And to make her a Time Lord, we needed Time Lord DNA. And that DNA is yours,"

The Doctor stared at her, and Kovarian smiled again, delighting in this.

"You are, or were, should I say, the only Time Lord left. The only person whose DNA we could use. Alice has your DNA,"

The Doctor was still dumbfounded, staring at Alice as though she had grown an extra head.

"Well, this has been lovely, but I'm afraid we must be getting on,"

Kovarian snapped her fingers, and a man and a woman in black suits appeared to melt out of the walls.

"Lock him up," she said, pointing at the Doctor, "Dispose of her,"

"No!" Alice cried, as one of them drew a pistol from her holster. The Doctor echoed her with a cry of horror, trying to reach Clara, but he was being restrained by the man. Kovarian slapped Alice, leaving a red mark on her cheek as she started struggling, but the girl kept wriggling.

She managed to get free just as the woman with the gun thumbed the hammer back. Just as she fired, Alice succeeded in dodging Kovarian and lunging in front of Clara. She gave a cry as the bullet entered her flesh, dropping to her knees.

"No!" Clara cried on horror, running to the falling girl, catching her head as she slumped back, "No, Alice, no..."

The Doctor broke free and knelt by Alice as well, as Kovarian watched, amused, from the sidelines. Clara looked up at her.

"You created her," she cried, "And all you can do is _smile_?"

"Well, what else is there for me to do? A1 was an experiment; I can always create another. Time consuming, yes, but there is plenty of time," Kovarian shrugged.

Clara glared at her through tearful eyes. Meanwhile, the Doctor was muttering something to Alice.

"Alice," he whispered, "I know it's going to be hard, but you are going to have to regenerate, okay?"

"I-don't," Alice managed to say, gasping for air, "Know...how,"

"You just need to stop fighting it; it's your body's natural instinct, just let happen,"

"Can't," Alice gasped as she writhed on the floor, "Can't-do...it,"

"Just let go, Alice!" the Doctor cried. Alice smiled sleepily, her struggles ceasing, before her eyelids drooped. The Doctor scrabbled for her pulse, before sagging visibly.

"No," he whispered, staring at the broken body of the girl with his DNA in his arms. He stood up, staring at Kovarian with enough force to burn through her. She stepped backwards, looking scared.

Clara stared at Alice's face. It looked so peaceful in death. Why didn't she regenerate? Then, Clara saw something. A flicker of golden light, sparking in her hands.

"Doctor," Clara whispered as the light grew. He didn't turn around, "Doctor!"

The Doctor turned just in time to Alice's body erupt with golden light.

**A/N: Hi! Sorry I didn't update yesterday, I had a ten-hour car journey. So it got really hard writing because I had described Alice as tall, but then I kept visualising her as small...**

**So I made her regenerate...natural way to change your character's appearance, right?**

** Guest: Thank you so much, your comments mean so much to me!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Golden light streamed from Alice's hands, feet and face. She thrashed as the light enveloped her, hiding her entire body in a golden cloud.

"What's happening?" Clara whispered to the Doctor, as their hands were cuffed behind them. Madame Kovarian seemed to have recovered herself, and was looking at Alice with an interested expression.

"She's regenerating," he replied, "She'll look different but it will still be her. All Time Lords can regenerate, if they die. Her personality might change. She'll be different. But she'll still be Alice,"

"Have you ever regenerated?" Clara asked him. He nodded, a closed expression on his face. She let the matter drop. The golden light started to fade, and Alice lay back. She was different; her face had changed, become longer and thinner. She was smaller as well, really small. Her eyes were green and her hair was a paler brown, short and spiky.

Immediately, Alice sat up. She blinked, before looking around. She opened her mouth, and a puff of golden light floated out.

Slowly, Alice got to her feet, looking wary. Then, without warning, she ran, sprinting down the corridor.

Alice liked running. It was liberating, just her and the floor and the wind in her hair. There was no wind here though, not even apparent wind. It was strange.

She didn't know where she was, or where she was running to. She just needed to get out, and then she could come back and help the Doctor and Clara. Her lungs burned, but it was a good feeling.

Alice heard a shout from behind and looked around to see the man and the woman from earlier running after. Pushing herself, she moved her legs faster and faster. She discovered that things were moving in a blur past her, the white walls becoming fuzzy. What was Kovarian had said? Enhanced speed?

It seemed that she had unlocked that ability, as she sprinted down the corridor. Suddenly, Alice saw another corridor and she veered to her left. Confident that she had time, she leant against the wall, catching her breath.

Then she was off again, legs long in proportion to her body moving steadily like the wheels of a bicycle. Alice ran past endless white walls, until she came to the end of the corridor she was running along.

It spread out into a wide space, gleaming white like the rest of the building. It looked like some sort of hangar. Long, elegant silver fighter planes were nestled in small berths. And in the middle, looking out of place in the world of white and silver, was a familiar blue box.

Alice's face lit up, and she ran over to it, shaking the handle. It wouldn't budge.

"Come on," she whispered, "I need you to open. Please? I need to save the Doctor and Clara,"

There was a noise suspiciously like a grumble, but Alice heard a click and the door of the Tardis swung open. She grinned and stepped inside.

"Thank you," she said, closing the door behind her, "Now how do you fly this?"

She looked at the console. Alice's creators seemingly hadn't left out Tardis-flying lessons, and she sifted through the endless information in her brain to find what she needed.

"Okay," she grinned, "Let's do this!"

She flicked a few switches, typing co-ordinates into the screen on the pillar in front of her. She frowned, "The Doctor flies much too slowly,"

There was a noise that seemed almost like agreement from the Tardis as it whirred into life, and Alice pushed a lever further down. The Tardis hurtled through the vortex, and Alice whooped in delight.

Her face became deadly serious again as the Tardis materialised at her chosen destination. Alice ran around the Tardis, flicking several switches, before pausing at the door. She wouldn't admit to anyone, but Alice was scared. Outside there might be the woman who had created her for her own nefarious ends, who wanted to make her kill the second person who had cared about her.

Alice took a deep breath, before opening the Tardis and stepping out. She had activated the perception filter, and was now inside the Doctor's cell. He was sitting against the wall, head in his hands, but he looked up when he heard the Tardis, looking confused. His face lit up when Alice stepped out of the blue box.

"How did you find her?" he asked, looking delighted, "How did you even get in?"

"I just happened across her," Alice replied, "And I asked her to let me. I don't think she was very happy about it at first, but she let me fly her, so it was okay. And she thinks you fly much too slowly,"

He laughed, and got into the blue box, "I guess know we find Clara,"

The Doctor ran around the Tardis, typing co-ordinates, flicking switches and pulling levers. The familiar whirring began and soon the doors were open and they were staring at a stunned Clara. Her face was still shocked as she walked inside the Tardis.

"How-" she asked.

"I found the Tardis and asked her to let me in," Alice told her brightly, "Then it was easy,"

"She?" Clara asked, confused.

"Yes," Alice frowned, "She's a girl,"

"Are you seriously Alice?" Clara asked her.

"Of course I am!" Alice replied. Clara looked at her before shaking her head. The Doctor cleared his throat.

"Ahem...there may be a slight problem,"

Clara turned to glare at him, "What?"

"Well...I did ask the Tardis to take us back to your time. But..."

"But what?" Clara's tone was deadly.

"Well we're on Earth..." the Doctor gulped at the expression on Clara's face, "But we're not exactly on Earth at the right time...it's 9768,"

"But can't you just fly us back to my time?" Clara asked.

"In theory, yes, but it's not working. I don't know why,"

Clara sighed, "So we're stuck here?"

"Uh...yes," the Doctor replied.

"Well, we can always look around," Alice offered. The two adults looked at her, before shrugging.

"Well, what harm can it do?" Clara asked.

**A/N: Hi, this isn't one of my best, I know, but I'm slightly distracted with wanting to watch like the whole of series 5-7 again...but I can't :(. Sooo, that's taking over my mind and therefore my writing ability. I am seriously thinking of going out in the monsoon-like rain and just buying them all now...**

**Anyway, please enjoy this chapter. The ending is crappy, I know, but that's because I didn't want it to feel like an end after seven chapters. I WILL write better the chapter after next. The next one, I'm not sure what I'll do, it might have a lot of dialogue. Anyway, see you soon!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

The Doctor paused on his way towards the door of the Tardis.

"Wait!" he cried, "I can get us back, if I do this...and then..."

The familiar whirring sound began and soon the Tardis materialised in the correct time.

"Stupid, stupid," the Doctor muttered, hitting himself on the forehead, "Why did I forget that? Why?"

Clara, meanwhile, had stopped in the door of the Tardis. Alice was already outside, chasing a butterfly.

"Doctor? Aren't you coming?" she asked, frowning. He turned around.

"What? Oh, no, I just need to check something..."

She nodded, still frowning and walked out of the Tardis. The Doctor turned around, before flicking a few switches on the console.

"Now," he muttered, "Let's see why Earth has changed so much,"

Soon, the Tardis had materialised several millennia in the future. The Doctor opened the Tardis doors and stepped outside, but just as he exited the time-machine, a fist collided with his face. He spun, seeing stars, and recovered just in time to see two children sprinting down the street, one of them clutching his sonic screwdriver.

"Hey!" he called after them, "I need that!"

The Doctor sighed, before chasing after them. They veered down a narrow alleyway, before stopping and laughing to each other. Two boys, one tall and one short.

"Um, excuse me!" the Doctor called, "Can I have that back?"

They laughed incredulously, before turning around, and the Doctor saw that one of them was a girl, with short floppy dark hair.

"Bleedin' toffs," she muttered, "Always poking their noses in, thinking their wanted everywhere. You cain't have it back, idiot, that's why took it from, en't it?"

"Why?" the boy asked, "Is it valuable? 'Ow much can we flog it for?"

"Ned!" the girl snapped, "Now why would 'e tell us that? You cain't just go up to someone and ask them how much their stolen goods is worth!"

"Uh, yes, it's quite valuable, so I am really going to need it back," the Doctor replied.

"Like we was ever going to give it you!" the girl cried, "But you're a priv', ain't you? Cain't you just go back to your lovely warm little 'ome and buy another one?"

"Not really, and I don't think I'm a 'priv', whatever that is,"

"You ain't?" the boy asked, surprised, "What are you?"

"I really don't know how to put it in fitting terms," the Doctor replied uneasily.

"Whatcha doin' 'ere then?" he persisted, "Why you in London then?"

"Ah!" the Doctor murmured, "So this is London! It looks like Victorian London from the future..."

"What's Victorian London?" the boy asked.

"Ned!" the girl yelled, "Honestly, to think you're almost the same age as I am, anyone would think you were 10!"

"Sorry Ara," Ned muttered shame-facedly.

"Wait!" Ara cried, directing her words at the Doctor, "It's you, en't it? You're the one the Academy wants!"

"Probably, yes," the Doctor told her, "Now if I could really have that, then..."

"Not a chance, mate," Ned replied cheerfully, "You're coming with us,"

"And don't think about running away," Ara added, "I can punch you again, s' your choice. You can even choose where. But I might just go for your stomach anyway, your face hurts,"

The Doctor looked at her, wondering what kind of a world this girl must live in to talk of violence so flippantly, almost cheerfully.

"I'm fine, thanks. I'll just go with you then..." he trailed off as Ned poked him in the back. Ara set off at a brisk walking pace.

"I would run," she threw over her shoulder, "But you don't look up to it,"

"Do you always insult everyone you meet?" the Doctor asked her.

"Yeah," she shrugged, "But I don't usually punch them first. That comes after,"

She ran to a run-down area of the tenement buildings lining the street they were walking down and clambered up the rocks. The Doctor looked at it before pulling himself up after her. They continued onto the roof, walking across the thin strip of brick separating the two sloping slides of slate. The Doctor gulped as he looked down.

From here it was easy to see the poverty people like Ara lived in. The same people in their clothes of drab grey and brown, the people in uniforms who had tried to catch Alice went about their business, but the contrast between the two groups was vast. The poorer citizens were grubby and unkempt, scuttling about with their heads down and shoulder hunched. The policemen and women were clean and gleaming, a world apart from their surroundings, strutting about as if they own the place.

The tenements areas were vast, stretching off into the horizon for miles. Factories belched smoke into the air, and cranes were visible in the distance. Further on, the Doctor could see gleaming buildings towering into the air in spires and curves, all the colour of the rainbow.

Suddenly Ara let out a cry of pain, clutching her back. Blood-stained bandages were visible under the pale grey of her shirt.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked, concerned, "What are those bandages for?"

"Whippin'," Ara replied nonchalantly, "I was tired and desperate, else they wouldn't have caught me,"

"What?" he cried, outraged.

"'S true," Ned told him in his cheerful voice, "'S her third. I've 'ad it twice...but she's still a better thief than me. I just started later,"

"Been stealing since I was five," Ara continued, "Me Dad died, me Mam couldn't support us. I tried begging, but they whipped for me that. I got caught one when I was nine...whipping again. I was tired, Dockmaster made me stay later, even though I wasn't actually late, and Cai was hungry. Been in prison for a month once, Ned busted me out. Been in the stocks for a night once too. Wasn't too bad. I managed to eat some o' the stuff they chucked at me,"

"Cai's her brother," Ned chipped in, "'E's got something wrong with 'im, they dunno what, but 'e doesn't relate to you that well. I'm sure they do know, but e's only a drudge, so what do they care?"

"But-" the Doctor looked horrified, "Those whippings...that's torture!"

Ara snorted, "Not the them it ain't. To them it's fun. Some of the posh toffs even come and watch, sometimes. If you're in the stocks they'll stay for hours sometimes, just laughing,"

"Who are they?"

Ned looked around, suddenly frightened, "The 'keepers," he muttered.

"Enforcers, lawkeepers," Ara whispered, looking scared too, "Some say that they know where you are if you say their title. No one knows, but 's safer just to say them,"

"And...and no one does anything to stop them?" the Doctor asked, looking from one grubby face to another. Ned shook his head.

"There've been rumours of rebels," Ara said, "I want to join, but you 'ave to find 'em first. 'S bloody hard,"

"I've heard they look for potential candidates," Ned seemed pleased with himself for knowing words like 'potential' and 'candidates', rolling them off his tongue like a particularly delicious dessert, "You know, people who've annoyed the, you know, them, or been punished a lot,"

"Does this sort of thing, you know, punishment, happen a lot then?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah," Ara replied grimly, "Sometimes they just go knocking on doors and put people in the stocks for fun. They killed my Dad, just because they felt like it. You couldn't recognise him afterward. 'S why it's always better to be on the move,"

"Oh. I-I'm sorry," the Doctor muttered. Ara shrugged, before walking on. Soon, they came to a steep set of rudimentary stairs, carved out of the building by the weather. Ara ran down fearlessly, Ned going slowly behind the Doctor, visibly bored.

Soon, they ended up on a wide, twisting street. Enforcers patrolled, slapping their electric batons against their spiked gloves. Several 'privs', as Ara and Ned called them, were also walking down, looking very high and mighty and pleased with themselves. Evidently they thought they were doing a great philanthropic deed by venturing into the depths of the slums. Despite himself, the Doctor felt a stab of revulsion for these ridiculously dressed people who just walked past suffering without doing anything, by the sounds of his escorts' testimonies enjoying it.

One of them, a tall man in a very large bowtie and top hat, with a meter-long tailcoat, all luminous yellow walked over to them. Even the Doctor winced.

"You, boy," he beckoned to Ned. The Doctor stepped a few paces back, knowing that seeing him with the two children would arouse suspicion. Ned walked towards the man suspiciously, but still hopefully, "Bring this to my friend," Ned nodded eagerly as the man handed him a white envelope, before speaking slowly and patronisingly, "31 Riverside Drive, Uptown. It's not urgent, but have it delivered by tomorrow,"

Then he walked off, Ned staring after him, looking at the letter with revulsion, "But-" he began, "I ain't allowed in the Upper City,"

He looked at Ara, who looked worried. The Doctor looked from one to the other.

"Why can't you go into the Upper City? What is it?"

"'S the place all the toffs live. The Academy's there, all the main utilities, all the good schools. Just another way they rub it in our faces. We cain't go there, or we're dead. All the stuff we really need is there,"

"Then what's the problem? Ned just won't deliver the letter," the Doctor was still puzzled.

"That priv'll have taken Ned's face with 'is eyepiece, if 'e doesn't do what 'e then 'e's dead, plain as," Ara replied, looking really worried.

"And don't you even get paid?"

"Well, some of 'em think they're being all kind by giving us maybe a penny, but that's just insulting. They can ask us to do whatever and we'll 'ave to. 'S what we're there for," Ned sounded so despondent that the Doctor put an arm round him.

"It'll be fine, I'm sure it will. Look, I look like one of them, right? I need to get to the Academy anyway, so I can deliver Ned's message for him,"

Ara pursed her lips, "Well, you certainly look the part, the bowtie and coat and all, but 's no use. They'll 'ave seen them pics, they know what you look like and take you straight to the Academy,"

The Doctor looked at her, "Why are you suddenly helping me? A few minutes ago you punched me in the face and stole my screwdriver,"

Ara shrugged, "Dunno. You're not one of 'em. You don't like 'em. I dunno,"

The Doctor looked at her, "Ara, you've had a rubbish life. It's time someone helped you make it better,"

**A/N: Hi guys! Sorry about the wait, I'm sailing all this week and next, so I'll only be writing in the evenings and there's a regatta tomorrow so I might finish late. And so the ending is kinda crappy. And so maybe I'm rereading the Hunger Games. But it's a fanfic. I have poetic license. The beginning is a weensy bit rushed as well but I had this idea and I wanted to get to the future as soon as possible. That sounds so weird...I have ordered like the entire 11th doctor era from Amazon, it's going to arrive soon, I'm so excited! **

**And there may not be a lot of Clara and Alice for the meanwhile, just to warn you, I have a really good idea with Ara and Ned and the Doctor, just some scenes kind of forming...**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"Please Clara!" Artie whined, making his eyes as big as possible. Alice stood behind him, twiddling the hem of the small fringed bag Clara had given her. She was now dressed in a high-collared blue dress with white spots, and a pair of white pumps.

Everything she saw interested her more and she had jumped at Artie's suggestion of the cinema. Angie was out with a friend, and Mr Maitland was at work, so it was just Artie, Clara and Alice.

"Please?" Alice asked, looking at Clara with such big green eyes that she couldn't help but relent. It was hard thinking of anyone Alice's age as cute in a baby way, but it was true. Alice was just _adorable._ Clara sighed.

"Fine. Alice, come with me and we'll get you a coat," Clara gave the girl a small cropped denim jacket, and retrieved her handbag from the peg in the hall.

"Artie?" Alice asked, "What is the cinema?"

Artie looked between her and Clara, shocked.

"Are you from another planet?!" he cried. Clara winced. Alice tilted her head to one side, wondering.

"Well, I think I'm from a different time..." she began thoughtfully, "The Doctor and Clara found me on Earth, in 9786. I don't really remember anything before that, you see. This woman created me; I'm half Time Lord and half human and I know most things,"

Artie's mouth fell open and he blushed. Clara frowned at him, but then shrugged, and silently breathed a sigh of relief that Alice was too naive to take offence at things like that.

"What's a Time Lord?" Artie asked brightly, recovering himself.

"Time Lords are a species native to the planet of Gallifrey," Alice told him promptly, "Their anatomy is similar to that of the human, but they have two hearts and the ability to regenerate upon being fatally wounded or falling ill. Almost all Time Lords were destroyed in the Time War, and the only known survivor of that war is-"

"Uh, thanks Alice," Clara said hurriedly, trying to stop Artie from discovering that the Doctor was really an alien, "We don't need to know anymore,"

Artie frowned, wondering why she had stopped Alice from finishing, before shrugging and following Clara down the street and into the cinema.

The Doctor looked at Ara as she led them over yet another roof, and pulled his coat further around him. He didn't understand how Ara and Ned weren't absolutely freezing, but supposed they were used to it.

"Can I have my screwdriver back?" he asked her. She frowned at him, before taking it out of her pocket and twirling it in her slim fingers.

"What's it do?" she asked, looking at it, "It ain't a normal screwdriver. 'S got that funny light thing on the top. Got no 'ead, it ain't,"

"It's a sonic screwdriver," the Doctor explained, "It does lots of things..."

"Well, I ain't giving it back to you," Ara replied sharply, "Not til I know 'xactly what it does,"

The Doctor shrugged, before grabbing onto a nearby chimney that was belching smoke as he stumbled. He coughed as he inhaled the fumes, while Ned chuckled. Ara just ploughed on, but then stopped as the roof levelled out into a flat platform.

A sheet of tarpaulin was spread between a chimney and a broken television ariel. Ara made her way over it and sat down, hugging her knees and blowing on her hands. The Doctor noticed that she actually was shivering, her teeth chattering, and realised that he hadn't seen it before because Ara's automatic reaction was to hide any weakness that might be visible.

He took his coat off and held it out, seeing Ned pick up a large trench coat from the floor and wrap it around himself. Ara looked mistrustfully at him, before taking it and shrugging it on.

"What does your box do?" Ned asked, "You know, the blue one, the one you was in, and then you disappeared and reappeared again,"

"It's a space/time-machine," the Doctor told him, seeing Ned's face light up, "It can travel anywhere and anytime in the universe,"

"That's amazing!" Ned breathed. Ara was trying to look as though she didn't care, but the Doctor had seen her eyes light up momentarily all the same.

"It's true," the Doctor shrugged.

"Are you an alien then?" Ned asked, hanging on the Doctor's every word.

"Uh...yes," he muttered, "I am, really,"

"Can...could-could you maybe tell me about some of the places you've been?" Ned murmured tentatively.

The Doctor looked at him, at this boy who had known only hardship from such a young age, who had seemed so pleased at news of the outside world, and nodded.

Clara held tight onto Alice's hand as they exited the shopping complex. She had run off to look at things every five seconds, and still had that awed look that seemed so familiar on her face.

The lights in the corridors had been left on, but all the shops were dark and shuttered. Then, suddenly, the lights went off and they were plunged into darkness. Artie gasped and clutched Clara's hand tightly.

"Ok..." she muttered, "I really don't know what is happening. Does anyone have a torch?"

"Yes!" Artie cried, pulling one from his pocket and turning it on, shining the small beam of light around. Clara looked at him, before leading the two children towards the exit. The automatic doors remained shut as the three walked towards them. Alice tried shaking them, but they wouldn't budge. She ran over to a smaller manual door, but that was locked.

Then they heard a voice speak in the shadows, "Now, Alice, isn't this nice? Meeting again at last,"

Artie shone the torch in the direction of the voice, revealing Madame Kovarian, this time wearing a metal eyepatch on her left eye.

"What are you doing here?" Clara asked, pulling Artie and Alice behind her.

"Oh, I just came for Alice," Kovarian smiled, "I think it's time she came back to me. After all, I am the one who created her, you know,"

"Leave Alice alone," Clara snapped, as she and Kovarian glared at each other. Meanwhile, Alice had inched further and further towards the small door, dragging Artie and Clara with her. She took a hairpin from her hair, and jiggled it in the lock, before the door swung open, and she dragged Artie and Clara through, and then they were running.

Kovarian snarled and pulled something from a holster in her back, aiming it in the direction of the fleeing Alice. A thin wire with something hard whipped through the air, striking Alice hard in the back. Electricity coursed through her, and she fell, crying out Clara's name.

Clara turned around and made a grab for Alice, as the cables dragged her unconscious body down the corridor. Kovarian gave a victorious smile, before dark figures lifted Alice into the air, walking away.

Clara leant against the wall, sighing. Where was the Doctor when she needed him?

**A/N: Uh, hi, I'm sorry for the long wait, but I was on a yatch this weekend, and this is my last week of sailing. I have to sail oppies :(. Soo, Peter Capaldi is the new doctor...anyone see that coming? I wanted it to be Ben Whishaw...but it's not. I don't know anything about Capaldi. Except he's old. I was rewatching the Angels Take Manhattan earlier, and I wondered how the HELL Moffat resisted putting Amelia's Last Farewell as Chapter 11. I just don't know. And I've decided I don't like Clara. She's impossible to write. And evil. I WANT AMY AND RORY! I'm listening to the Scientist right now. And I keep typing in rhythm..**

** Guest: Yah, Picos and Fevas are my absolutel FAVOURITE boats! But yachts are coolio too. I have to sail an oppy. How evil is that?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Alice woke up with a start, becoming increasingly aware of a throbbing pain in her back. Where was she? It was the same white room that she had had to run from, and then when she had escaped with the Doctor and Clara.

"Ah, Alice, you're awake," Madame Kovarian said, and Alice whirled around to find the woman standing behind her, flanked by two tall humanoid figures wearing black suits, "You will need to wear this,"

She took an elegant silver eyepatch from her pocket and held it out to Alice, who shied away from it. Kovarian sighed and grabbed Alice by the hair, jamming the eyedrive onto her eye.

"Much better," she smiled cruelly, "Now, stand up and follow me,"

Alice did so, shaking, and was led out of the cell by Madame Kovarian, who continued to speak as they walked, "This is our research centre, commonly known to those living in London as the Academy. It was not only created for the purpose of programming you, but almost three quarters of our resourced are dedicated to ensuring that silence does not fall,"

"What do you mean, making sure silence will not fall?" Alice asked, trying to combat her natural inquisitiveness, knowing that questions would not be accepted.

"That's none of your business, though, is it Alice?" Kovarian asked, brandishing the small device that had caused Alice so much pain in the past, "You just need to play your part. And your part is to kill the Doctor, and his companion, Clara,"

Alice shook her head, "I will never do that. Never,"

Kovarian grinned, "Oh, we'll see Alice, won't we? You will in the end. You will,"

Ara turned around as the sun rose, "Right," she said, "We need to get that letter to wherever it needs to go. But how do we do that?"

The Doctor jumped up suddenly, "I can get you there! We need to get to the Tardis though,"

Ned looked at Ara, and the two led the way onto the roof and out from under the tarpaulin. Then she took off, running towards the thing ledge that separated the two sloping sides of the roof ahead. She hurried along it with flawless agility, Ned and the Doctor ploughing ahead behind her.

The winding maze of streets looked exactly the same at every corner, and the Doctor wondered how the hell Ara and Ned managed to find their way around so easily, until they reached the large street that seemed to be a landmark.

The Doctor looked at where the Tardis should be, and saw it surrounded by yellow police tape and the sinister enforcers. Ara looked at him, and shrugged.

"I hate police tape," he muttered, racking his brains for ideas, but Ned got there first. The boy picked up a piece of brick from the ground and chucked it in the direction of two passing drudges. Immediately they turned on each other, and the enforcers hurried over in the direction of the fight.

Ara dragged the Doctor and Ned over to the Tardis, and the three piled in, until Ara and Ned stopped dead.

"Woah," Ned breathed, looking awed. Ara was trying her best to look as though she didn't care, but her body language betrayed, showing her excitement and amazement.

"Now," the Doctor grinned, "Where are we going?"

Ned reeled off the address, and the Doctor typed it into the screen, as the familiar whirring sound began. Suddenly another sound joined in, the ringing of a phone. The Doctor frowned, before picking it up and saying, "Hello?"

"Doctor," came the relieved voice of Clara at the other end, "They've taken Alice,"

"I'm sorry, but who is this?" he asked, frowning.

"It's Clara," she replied, "You know, you dropped me back in my time...uh, a day ago? I've been calling the Tardis phone for ages,"

"Who's Clara? I don't...oh, yes, Clara. Sorry, go ahead,"

"Uh, Doctor are you all right? I already said they had Alice," Clara sounded worried, but amused at the same time.

"What? Who has Alice?"

"Madame Kovarian. We were at the cinema, and then she came and took her, I don't know where she is!" Clara replied, sounding at her wits' end.

"Ok, I'll come and get you in a minute. I just have to do something first," he hung up, and nodded at Ned, who slipped out of the door.

He ducked down, joining a crowd of Lower City inhabitants who seemed to be on some kind of maintenance patrol, before darting over to one of the massive houses on the side of the road. It was a pale pastel pink, glittering in the weak sun. Ned looked at it, before sliding his message through the shining letterbox.

Everything about this place was perfect, he thought as he stared at the glimmering buildings. The size of the houses; before his parents had died, he had lived in a one-room house with three other families. Here, each family had a massive residence stretching out up into the sky.

"Hey," a voice said, and Ned jumped guiltily to look at a girl standing next to him. She was the picture of a toff, but dressed slightly more tastefully than most. Her hair was short and dark brown, standing up from her head in spikes, her eyes a deep green. She was plain, but not ugly and dressed in a simple green dress. The only strange thing about her appearance was a silver eyedrive on her eye. Ned wondered if you had to be beautiful to be a priv', and if any ugly babies were thrown into the Lower City to the mercy of poverty and enforcers.

"Don't run," the girl continued, "I've never seen a Lower Citizen before,"

"What are we?" Ned bristled at her tone, "Freaks to be stared at? You're more freakish than any of us combined, in your ridiculous clothes and hair,"

"I'm Lina," she continued, smiling shyly, "Don't be offended, please. I didn't mean it like that, I just..."

"I'm Ned," he muttered, "And if you wanted to see us so badly, then why didn't you just swan into the Lower City and stare at us suffering?"

He couldn't believe he was doing this, standing up to a toff, a rich little daddy's girl. This was the kind of thing Ara did, yelling at people and getting cross. He was Ned; he just kept his head down and tried to survive. Just Ned. He didn't do anything apart from steal to survive. He certainly didn't do anything as mad as fly into the Upper City with a man in a blue box and start fighting with a priv' girl.

"I don't like watching people suffer," Lina told him in her stupid sweet voice, "I want to help,"

"Like hell you do," Ned snarled, "Help from your cosy little mansions with enough food and warmth and security,"

"Ned, wait-" Lina began, but Ned didn't want to hear it. He turned on his heel and stalked off, back to the Tardis. Away from Lina, and her plaintive cries of how she just wanted to help. Away from the temptation and desire that had arisen in him when he had seen the place the people lived. Away from the girl who was smiling as he walked away, throwing something big and dark at the blue box he was heading to.

**A/N: I officially hate Whouffle and Clara and love River. It's official. But the flirting is a bit much in the actual episodes. But still.**

**Okay, it's not actually showing me the new reviews so I can reply...**

**So basically, some people at the club sail their own boats, like fevas or lasers etc., some sail teras and oppies as well...but I don't have a boat, and if you don't have one then you need to rent an oppy :(**

** Imawhovian (only review I can actually remember for some reason) that's so awesome!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Alice grinned as she consulted her watch, before slipping into a public toilet and changing into a black bodysuit and pulling on her sturdy black boots. She put her pistol in the holster on her hip, sheathing her sword on the other side and then shrugged on a long black trench coat, hiding her weapons.

She held her head high as she walked through the streets of London, both Upper and Lower. Alice consulted the readout on the display of her watch, which was a hi-tech device housing a vortex manipulator and a time/space tracker among other things.

The object she had thrown at the Tardis was connected to this, and showed her that it was currently about to materialise in Victorian London. Alice typed the co-ordinates into her vortex manipulator and arrived at her destination, in an alleyway adjoining the street where the Tardis was.

She inched her way further up and saw the sign for the street the Tardis was on read Paternoster Row. It was a wide, clean street that in the daytime would have been filled with plenty of passers-by, but it was night-time, and deserted. Perfect for what Alice needed to do.

She saw the Doctor get out of the Tardis and head in her direction, followed by Clara and two children, a boy and a girl. One of them was Ned. Alice sprang out of the dark, allowing her coat to fall off, revealing her weapons.

"Hello Doctor," she grinned, "We meet again,"

He stiffened, "Who are you?"

"Don't you know?" Alice said, feigning offense, "I am offended. Who else was created to kill you?"

"Alice?" he asked, shocked, "But you're-you...you regenerated!"

"How long has it been for you, Doctor, I wonder," Alice continued, "A day, perhaps, maybe even a few hours since Clara called you. Well, for me it's been 14 years. You're not that good at getting to people on time, are you? Madame Kovarian told me all about Amy,"

"14 years?" the Doctor looked horrified.

"I died a few times," Alice told him conversationally, "Most of them were slow, all of them were painful. I'm in my...fifth incarnation? Maybe sixth. I lost count. I went through a pretty bad one three years ago, went back to the body of an 11-year-old, so know I look 14, but in essence I am, seeing as I was born into a 13-year-old's body. And do you know what I realised? That Kovarian was right. Silence cannot fall. And to prevent that, I'm going to have kill you,"

"You know, I don't think you will," said a voice from behind her, and Alice turned to see a young woman with dark hair and a sword glaring at her. Alice immediately twisted a dial on her gun, setting it to kill and fired. With surprising agility, the woman dodged the beam of red light and advanced on Alice, weaving in and out of her shots.

"Jenny!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"'allo Doctor," she said, as she aimed a blow at Alice, who fought back bitterly, "Who's tryin' to kill you this time?"

He sighed, "It's a very long story,"

"With varying lengths," Alice put in as she tried to disarm Jenny. The two were locked in battle, but a vicious tap from Jenny disarmed Alice, and broke her wrist in the process. She cried out, but then smiled, "Thanks for that. Unfortunately for you, I'm ambidextrous,"

She dived at Jenny and grabbed her sword, wrenching it from her with two hands, ignoring the pain that shot through her wrist.

"Jenny, stop!" the Doctor cried, before turning to Alice, who pulled out her gun and aimed it in his direction. Clara stood on the sidelines with Ned and Ara, biting her lip.

"Alice," he said, looking at her, "I know Kovarian told me to kill you. I know she has probably brainwashed you into thinking that you need to kill me. But you are not a psychopath. You're Alice, you...you know everything but nothing and you're sweet and nice and you don't kill people,"

"How would you know, Doctor?" Alice spat, "You knew me for, what, a week, tops? I've been at the mercy of Madame Kovarian for 14 years. How can you say I'm not a psychopath?"

"Look, Alice, just come inside and we'll talk, okay?" Clara added. Alice sighed, before nodding and sheathing her sword. She followed Jenny as the group walked into the house, where Strax was waiting at the door. Alice didn't give him a second glance, but Ara and Ned stared in shock.

If Madame Vastra seemed surprised to see a group of five people shown into her house by Jenny, most of whom she had never met, she didn't show it.

"Well, Doctor," she said, "What have you got yourself into this time?"

"Well, ma'am," Jenny began, "Apparently it's a long story,"

The Doctor sighed as he sat down, "Clara and I met Alice when I accidently landed us in London, 9786, a London which shouldn't be there. We discovered that she had been artificially grown and was half Time Lord, half human. We were captured by Madame Kovarian, who told us that Alice had been created to kill me, as River had failed. Then Alice helped us escape, and I dropped her and Clara back to Clara's time. Then I went to investigate where we had found Alice, as a whole time-stream had been altered. There, I met Ara and Ned, when Ara stole my sonic screwdriver. Which she still has,"

Ara grinned and started playing with the slim device, as the Doctor continued.

"Then I got a call from Clara telling me that Kovarian had taken Alice, so I came to pick her up, and I was going to ask if you could help us get her back, which is why we are here. But apparently Alice knew I would be here and so she turned up at the same time to kill me,"

"Wait!" Ned cried, "I know you! You're that girl I met when I went to deliver the letter to that toff, you said you'd never seen one of us before,"

Alice grinned, shaking her head, "Didn't your mummy tell you never to talk to strangers?" she asked mockingly, "I could track the Tardis after that, and then I went here,"

"Okay, Alice," the Doctor said turning to her, "Now that you're not trying to kill me, why do you think Kovarian is right? She's a murderer, and a sociopath,"

"So am I, you know," Alice told him, "A murderer and a sociopath, I mean. All of my life has been taken up with learning how to use weapons, learning poisons...when you first met me, I was a baby in a child's body. My first toys were guns. And I had to train, to practice what I had learned in the field. I killed the people I was told to. And all of it led to killing you,"

The Doctor stared at her in shock and horror, wondering what kind of a child Kovarian had turned Alice into.

"Boy," Strax broke the silence. Ned looked at him, frowning, but then Alice turned and sighed.

"I'm a girl, you stupid Sontaran," she snapped, "What is it?"

"Do not insult the Sontaran empire, girl," he snarled, "You have broken your wrist. Let me heal it for you,"

"I can do it myself, actually," Alice said, holding out her injured arm. She concentrated on it, trying to heal herself, but nothing happened.

"It's not working!" she cried, "Doctor, why isn't it working?"

He looked at Alice, trying to figure it out, "You said you had regenerated before,"

"Yeah," she frowned, "Loads of times. And I was dying then. Surely healing the wrist would be easy?"

"Were you always fatally injured then?" he asked. She nodded, and he held his hand out to Ara. She sighed, but handed over the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor scanned Alice, and looked at the results.

"It looks like your regenerations have been limited to fatal wounds, and mere injuries are cut off. Someone has done this on purpose,"

"Kovarian," Alice muttered, and it was surprising to hear the venom in her voice, "Sounds like something she'd do. She killed me twice, you know. The first was to teach me to regenerate. The second was punishment,"

No one spoke, looking at Alice with something between fear, hate and pity.

"I hate her," she continued, "And I don't want to do what she says. And I don't want to agree with her. But it's what I've been programmed to do. And every time I don't do what she says, my head hurts. Really badly. So I have to. And over the years, I began to think that she was right. I didn't want to. But I did. Because I didn't have any will left to fight it,"

"Isn't it hurting now?" Jenny asked, frowning.

"Yes," Alice whispered, "It's getting worse. I could ignore it, but-"

And then she began screaming.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Alice's fingers reached for the gun in her holster, her right arm hanging uselessly. She had stopped screaming, and she seemed to be improving the closer she got to the gun. Once her fingers had close around it, she seemed able to stand, wobbling a little.

"What's happening to her?" Clara asked, looking at the Doctor.

"I think it's the chip in her brain, the one Kovarian put in her when we were there last. It must be some kind of way to monitor her brain activity and pain regulators, making sure that she was punished if she didn't do what Kovarian wanted. But this kind of technology, even creating her in the first place is way above human standards, even in 9786 AD,"

"So you mean a bit like mind control?" Ned asked. The Doctor nodded, "We 'ave that. You get the chip when you're 18, we ain't got 'em yet," he said, gesturing to himself and Ara, "But they make you 'urt when you somefink they don't like. They only get turned on if the place you work in wants it to, or if you're in prison,"

"But how-" the Doctor murmured, but then his eyes fell on Alice's eyedrive, "Oh. The Silence. But Canton got the tape of the Apollo launch, how would they not be killed?" He turned to Ara and Ned, "Listen, Ned, Ara, do you remember learning in school about the first space launch? Did they have a clip of it?"

Ara's brow furrowed, "We don't normally go to school, but I went once in the winter, when it was snowing. I only went for the hot lunch and left in the afternoon, but we learned about the space thingy in the morning. They said there used to be some video thing, but all them files was deleted in the Purge, when they went through the files and stuff and destroyed a lot of them,"

"Ah," the Doctor said, "That makes sense. So Kovarian is working with the Silence. Figures,"

He turned to Alice, "Alice, I'm going to shut down any activity from your chip, ok? It will hurt a lot, and I'm sorry, but it's the only way to stop Kovarian controlling you,"

The girl nodded as she tried to force herself not to lift the gun. The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at her. Alice shuddered, and let out a little scream, before falling back into her chair. She smiled weakly, and sat back.

"So, that's over and done with," Vastra said, sighing, "I don't suppose you'll be needing our assistance anymore?"

"Uh, no, that should be it," Clara smiled at her, before glaring at the Doctor, "Isn't it?"

"Yes, it should be. Well, goodbye, Jenny, Vastra, Strax. Ara and Ned, you come with me and I will take you back home. Alice...what do you want to do?"

She smiled, "I think I'll travel. I've got my vortex manipulator, and I can go anywhere I want. And now I don't have Kovarian in my head anymore, so I'm good. I might even build a Tardis,"

"You can't build a Tardis. And you're 14," Clara said.

"I was created artificially to kill someone, I have killed more people than I can count, I'm half alien and I can regenerate if I die. Do you really think I can't take care of myself?" Alice asked, raising and eyebrow.

"Yes," Clara replied, smiling, "You're coming with us,"

Alice sighed and rolled her eyes, but followed Clara, the Doctor, Ara and Ned towards the door. They all entered the Tardis, and the Doctor plotted the co-ordinates for Ara and Ned's home. As the Tardis materialised, he looked at them.

"I can't go with you, you know that?" he asked. They nodded, but looked morose, "I want to make your lives better, but I can't. You need to make them better yourselves. Don't let yourselves be trodden down, just because people tell you to. Fight, but don't cause bloodshed. Try and fight peacefully, and maybe you will win,"

They nodded, and left, holding hands. The Doctor turned to Alice and Clara and smiled, but it wasn't a truthful smile.

"Well, home for you two. And Alice, I think I should probably take your watch,"

"What!" she cried, "No way! No. Way,"

The Doctor grinned and held out his hand. She scowled, but unstrapped it and handed it to him. He turned and piloted the Tardis back to Earth, 2013. Back to where home was for Clara, and something else was for Alice.

"Hang on," Clara said, turning around in the door, "Alice has regenerated. How will I explain that to Mr Maitland and the kids?"

"You'll figure something out," the Doctor grinned, before turning around and allowing the smile to fade from his face, and muttering, "Now time to figure out what is in my head,"

He turned to the screen and plotted a course for where he had last seen Kovarian. As soon as he reached the different time, his memories became foggy again.

"Doctor. I knew you'd return,"

The Doctor turned to Kovarian, "Tell me why I am forgetting. Tell me, Kovarian,"

She sighed, "It was only a temporary measure. When you landed in the time I created, I was able to create psychic block around the planet and time, slowly erasing your memories of previous times. It will stop when you return,"

The Doctor smiled in relief, and starting walking back to the Tardis, before looking at Kovarian.

"Why use Alice? Why a child? You created her to be 13, why not create her to be an adult, at least?"

Kovarian smiled cruelly, "Because, Doctor, it was be the worst end for you. Killed by a child of your own race. What better way than to get rid of the man who only interferes when there are children crying?"

**A/N: Okay, I admit it, this was utterly crap. Terrible, and there's no excuse. But this is end, my friends. The end of the book of Mystery Girl. Sob. I only wrote it for, like, a week. Or something. And I left it at chapter 12, because it's really a fanfiction of a TV programme, and series 7 only had about 10 episodes...the other series max 15, maybe?**

**So, I will probably be posting the next book in a few days. After I decide what the hell is gonna happen.**

**BYEZ ALLL! HAVE FUN!**


	13. NOTE

This is just an author's note, to say that I have uploaded the prologue of the sequel. It's called Forsaken Child, and I'm really sorry about the wait. It took me ages to get to a final idea, but now it's up. I will also, when I have time, have a look at these chapters, and rewrite them, as in editing. So please look at the sequel!


End file.
